Guidelines for Selecting Professional Development for Early Childhood Teachers

Engaging teachers of young children in effective in-service professional development is a critical component of establishing high quality early childhood education. However, not all professional development offerings are effective in imparting new knowledge, enhancing teacher practice, or improving child outcomes, making it difficult for teachers and directors to select professional development that will benefit their centers. This paper critically reviews the research literature on professional development for early childhood education to identify what features of professional development make a difference for teacher interactions and children’s learning and development. Guidance is provided for selecting professional development opportunities which meet the needs of children and teachers. Recommendations for how to create an ongoing professional development program within an early childhood center by creating a professional learning community are also made. Such an approach supports the center to become a place that values learning and continued education for all professionals

Teachers’ Perspectives on Year Two Implementation of a Kindergarten Readiness Assessment

In this study we examined teachers’ perspectives regarding the second year of implementing a Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA). Using a mixed-methods approach, we focused on the administration process, the perceived benefits of the assessment, and how teachers used the assessment to inform instruction. We also investigated whether these differed by teacher and district characteristics and how KRA experiences were different in the second year of implementation. Research Findings: Teachers generally did not view the KRA as beneficial for instruction or for students, reporting administration difficulties, inadequate KRA content, and limited utility of KRA data for supporting instruction as ongoing barriers to KRA use. Although the administration process seemed to be easier in the second year, teachers still reported it as burdensome, cutting into important beginning of kindergarten activities. Notably, teacher training and experience were associated with perceptions. Practice or Policy: Reasons for perceived lack of utility have important implications for future KRA design and implementation. These include better integration of KRAs into existing assessment systems, recognizing the added burden of KRAs to teachers (particularly at the beginning of kindergarten), and the role that additional training may have in supporting use of KRAs at the local level

Early Childhood Teachers’ Pedagogical Reasoning About How Children Learn During Language and Literacy Instruction

The knowledge that teachers hold about children’s learning is important to teachers’ practice. Few studies have examined how early childhood teachers use such knowledge during moment-to-moment instruction for language and literacy learning. This study employed a phenomenological approach to understand the knowledge that eight early childhood teachers used to inform their pedagogical reasoning during language and literacy activities. Stimulated recall interviews about practice were conducted with the prekindergarten teachers. Results indicated that the teachers used multiple sources of knowledge to inform their pedagogical reasoning that included: conceptions about how children learn; knowledge about specific children and the learning goals for these children; factors related to the school context; and ideas about themselves as teachers. The analyses revealed that the teachers’ various sources of knowledge functioned together to influence their enacted practice. Implications for professional learning and policy are discussed. Résumé -- Les connaissances que les enseignants ont de l’apprentissage des enfants sont importantes pour leur pratique. Peu d’études ont examiné comment les enseignants de la petite enfance utilisent ces connaissances sur le vif lors de consignes relatives au langage et à la littéracie. Cette étude a utilisé une approche phénoménologique pour comprendre les connaissances que huit enseignants de la petite enfance utilisaient pour former leur raisonnement pédagogique au cours d’activités de langage et de littéracie. Des entrevues de rappel stimulé sur la pratique ont été menées avec les enseignants de pré-maternelle. Les résultats indiquent que les enseignants utilisent diverses sources de connaissances pour former leur raisonnement pédagogique, y compris: les conceptions de la fac¸on dont les enfants apprennent; des connaissances sur des enfants particuliers et les objectifs d’apprentissage pour ces enfants; des facteurs liés au contexte de l’école; et des idées sur eux-meˆmes en tant qu’enseignants. Les analyses révèlent que les diverses sources de connaissances des enseignants fonctionnent ensemble pour influencer leur pratique concrète. Les implications pour l’apprentissage professionnel et les politiques sont discutées. Resumen -- El conocimiento que los docentes tienen sobre el aprendizaje de los niños es importante para la práctica docente. Pocos estudios han examinado cómo los educadores preescolares utilizan esos conocimientos durante momentos de instrucción para el aprendizaje de lenguaje y alfabetización. Este estudio empleó un enfoque fenomenológico para comprender el conocimiento que ocho maestros de la primera infancia utilizaron para informar su razonamiento pedagógico durante actividades de lenguaje y alfabetización. Entrevistas de recuerdo estimuladas sobre la práctica se llevaron a cabo con los maestros de pre-kinder. Los resultados indicaron que los maestros utilizaron múltiples fuentes de conocimiento para informar su razonamiento pedagógico que incluyeron: concepciones acerca de cómo los niños aprenden; conocimientos específicos acerca de los niños y los objetivos de aprendizaje para los niños; los factores relacionados con el contexto escolar; e ideas acerca de sí mismos como maestros. El análisis reveló que las variadas fuentes de conocimiento de los maestros funcionan juntas para influir en la práctica. Implicaciones para el aprendizaje profesional y político son discutidas

What knowledge do early childhood teachers use during literacy instruction? Using stimulated recall to investigate an unexplored phenomenon

This study utilized a novel phenomenological approach with a stimulated recall procedure to understand the pedagogical reasoning of eight early child teachers during the enactment of literacy instruction in whole-group meeting and language arts activities. This approach to investigating knowledge—in contrast to more tra­ditional conceptualizations of knowledge—focused on knowledge use as a process and prioritized teachers’ perspectives on knowledge used to enact literacy instruc­tion in their own classrooms. Additionally, it allowed for a more nuanced investi­gation of the role of setting and teacher characteristics that are often examined in association with literacy instruction (e.g., degree attainment, years of experience, curriculum, instructional activity). Six types of knowledge were used by teachers in their pedagogical reasoning. In order of frequency of use these were knowledge of: goals for instruction, children, feelings, school environment, developing skills, and past experiences. Importantly, teachers made more references to knowledge derived from their immediate contexts as compared to decontextualized knowledge. Impli­cations for understanding connections between knowledge and literacy instruction are discussed

Going beyond defining: Preschool educators\u27 use of knowledge in their pedagogical reasoning about vocabulary instruction

Previous research investigating both the knowledge of early childhood educators and the support for vocabulary development present in early childhood settings has indicated that both educator knowledge and enacted practice are less than optimal, which has grave implications for children\u27s early vocabulary learning and later reading achievement. Further, the nature of the relationship between educators\u27 knowledge and practice is unclear, making it difficult to discern the best path towards improved knowledge, practice, and children\u27s vocabulary outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to add to the existing literature by using stimulated recall interviews and a grounded approach to examine how 10 preschool educators used their knowledge to made decisions about their moment-to-moment instruction in support of children\u27s vocabulary development. Results indicate that educators were thinking in highly context-specific ways about their goals and strategies for supporting vocabulary learning, taking into account important knowledge of their instructional history with children and of the children themselves to inform their decision making in the moment. In addition, they reported thinking about research-based goals and strategies for supporting vocabulary learning that went beyond simply defining words for children. Implications for research and professional development are discussed

Pulmonary function evaluation during and following Skylab space flights

Previous experience during the Apollo postflight exercise testing indicated no major changes in pulmonary function. Although pulmonary function has been studied in detail following exposure to hypoxic and hyperoxic environments, few studies have dealt with normoxic environments at reduced total pressure as encountered during the Skylab missions. Forced vital capacity was measured during the preflight and postflight periods of the Skylab 2 mission. Initial in-flight measurements of vital capacity were obtained during the last two weeks of the second manned mission (Skylab 3). Comprehensive pulmonary function screening was accomplished during the Skylab 4 mission. The primary measurements made during Skylab 4 testing included residual volume determination, closing volume, vital capacity, and forced vital capacity and its derivatives. In addition, comprehensive in-flight vital capacity measurements were made during the Skylab 4 mission. Vital capacity was decreased slightly during flight in all Skylab 4 crewmen. No major preflight to postflight changes were observed in the other parameters

‘Shaken, but not stirred’: six decades defining social innovation

Ingenio Working Paper SeriesThis paper examines the evolution in the conceptualization of Social Innovation (SI) under the assumption of SI as a trans-disciplinary construct which comprises a diversity of discourses from different fields and actors. We performed a comprehensive and systematic literature review along six decades (1950-2014), extracting definitions of SI through a search of 2,339 documents in various languages retrieved from Web of Science, SCOPUS and Google scholar. To guide the inductive analysis of pluri-vocal discourses we assume innovation to be a learning-based process, introducing the notion of social practice linked to its intertwined institutional and sociocultural dimensions. We applied mixed qualitative methodologies, combining content analysis based on a social constructionist/interpretivist ontology with cognitive mapping techniques. Our findings identify some core and secondary elements underpinning two complementary perspectives (transformative and instrumental) of SI as scientific construct. They also point to a number of promising avenues for research towards the advancement of a socio-technical theory of innovation.This work has been partly funded by the JAE-Doc grant for the programme ‘Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios’, co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Spanish Ministry of Science (2011-2014).N

Strengths and obstacles for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area: The Spanish case

Trabajo presentado a la International Conference on Engineering Education & Research celebrada del 23 al 28 Agosto de 2009 en Seul (Corea del Sur).Quality assurance and accreditation in higher education are a priority aim in the convergence process to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Although the majority of European universities are working around these issues, there exist diverse tensions between the national legislation, accreditation and quality assurance, both in internal and external contexts. Spanish Higher Education Institutions must ensure the fulfillment of the goals related to their different degree programs, in a context of continuous improvement. This paper presents the evolution, some examples and the more recent trends related to quality assurance and accreditation in Spain. It comments some instruments that have been developed by the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation of Spain (ANECA), like the guidelines developed in the AUDIT program whose purpose is to provide guidance in designing internal quality assurance systems.Peer reviewe

How Do Differing Stakeholders Perceive Instances of Literacy Instruction?

In this study, we investigated how early childhood teachers’ perspectives on their enacted literacy instruction aligned with the perspectives of observers of that same instruction. Two master teachers and two researchers, all with early childhood expertise, observed and reported their perspectives of 45 instances of literacy instruction. These were examined for alignment across each other and with teachers’ descriptions of their thinking during the instruction. Participants’ perceptions of instruction tended to align, yet there were notable differences in perceptions about context and goals. Although we often found common ground among participants regarding the purpose of instruction, there were interesting variations across participants that highlighted the complexity of classroom processes, the value of teachers’ contextual knowledge and the multiple perspectives brought to bear on the same instance of instruction